Thursday, June 20, 2013

Thursday June 6th

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Richard KahnEcopedagogy: An Introduction

1970 formation of Earth Day and environmental movement.... I was born 2 years earlier. 
Now, some 40+ years later we are populating the world and using its resources faster than ever before in history. 
There has been an interesting shift in who is to blame and who's responsibility it is to clean things up.  In the 1970s this commercial (which was widely used and seen) informed the North America that we were all responsible to take care of the earth. 


There was a shift in perception by the 1980's the responsibilty shifted to the corporations who were doing damage to the earth.  In this commercial Chevron essentially says that "We are taking care of the earth, so don't worry about it"

So we didn't worry, it became somebody else's problem. 

Twenty years after that, corporations are still telling us the same story like in this 2010 Nissan commercial


The reality is that we still all have an individual responsibility.  I wanted to illustrate this with commercials because the reality is that pop culture is further reaching than academic papers. 

Ecocrisis and Environmental Education

We are at a point of ecological crisis.    
There are education programs that the government and the public are behind, however, they may not be working they way they are suppose to. 

The goals of environmental education should be knowledge of natural environment, interdisciplinary exploration and inquiry-based student centered framework

zoo school does have a corporate sponsor who is diluting the curriculum to advance their own corporate needs.
The school is successful in motivating students to learn

how should controversies be handled in the classroom?   Traditionally this means looking at both sides of the story, however in this environmental crisis there is no denying that there is a serious problem.... there is no other side of this story, at least not any that isn't corporately sanctioned. 

Earth Charter initiative - build a sound ethical foundation forth emerging global society and help to build a sustainable world based on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. 

How to take care of ourselves in a way where no one is excluded?
If we want to be eco-literate, we have to understand political, social , economic, cultural and be critical of them to can a bigger understanding. 

How can we achieve this in class? 
·      inquiry important
·      oblivious to things unless they affect us.
·      tracing steps - Consumer choices, tracking how and where things come from and the processes needed.  What are other options?   When there is a sense of choice, there is a sense of empowerment

·      if we can we intro critical thinking into environment (ok issue to talk about ) then there is opportunities to take critical thinking into other areas


how do we put the lens in towards us? 
·      focus on one thing, really make the connections
·      looking at day to day real life experiences that help to make the change
·      guilt needs to be let go of and move on to resolve


Here is a little 30 year timelaps video from NASA showing our impact on the earth
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